Mid August Panorama and Bloom Day

We're half way through another month and it's time to double up on a panorama shot and bloom day.  Bloom Day is a project at May Dreams Garden that invites people to share what is blooming on the 15th of the month.  August's post is here. We don't have much blooming this time of year, mostly the butterfly bushes, the hibiscus and some phlox hanging on.  The panorama is very green (plenty of great weather here outside of Washington DC.)

The most activity we are having out in the garden is actually harvesting the tomatoes.  It rained on Tuesday so we didn't get out there and on Wednesday Gloria picked a quart of cherry tomatoes.  We just keep them on the breakfast bar and they're handy for healthy snacking, just grab a handful as you're passing by and looking for a quick nosh.  The vegetable garden (on the far right) is almost completely overtaken by 3 tomato plants and the cherry plant is taking over the heirloom and jumbo plants. This was the harvest a couple weeks ago.

On to what's blooming.

Across the back fence are 4 butterfly bushes, but we have had very few butterflies this year.  I'm seeing a lot more bees (and a dragonfly earlier this summer) than butterflies.  For this post I didn't see any butterflies, but there were a couple of bees.

I don't know if it's the cool summer, or the damp spring but even the butterfly bushes don't look as healthy as in past years.

At least some pollinators are able to take advantage of the bushes.

And as a bonus - just because I like this picture - I'll let you see the dragonfly from earlier this summer.

And because it is bloom day, not because they are particularly photogenic, here is a shot of some of the phlox still holding on.

The big bloomer right now is the hibiscus in the front yard.

OK, I was playing with the macro setting in the camera and got this "in your face" shot.

Here are some more shots of the Queen of Sharon hibiscus.

I had to get a ladder out of the shed to get up high enough to get  these shots, it's blooming right at the roofline and that's a rain gutter just behind the blossoms.

I love the gentleness of these blossoms.

Executive Decision - They're WEEDS

Over the last couple posts I've been trying to identify a group of plants that have made a big impact on the back hill.  The "Green Spikey Things" have been multiplying and growing taller. The tallest group were up to about 7 feet tall and beginning to spread out at the top - threatening to become a canopy of green over the rest of the garden.  My garden is not a shade garden - it gets sun all day and there's no telling what a shade canopy would do.  So this week we made an executive decision. They're weeds.

If they had been across the back fence and providing privacy screening, then maybe we wouldn't call them weeds.  But they were growing in the middle of the hill and blocking our view of the butterfly bushes behind them.

The garden path was totally blocked and there was no visibility beyond the screen of Green Spikey Things.

Fortunately they were easy to pull.  Even the 6-7 foot tall ones didn't have roots and deeper than 3-4 inches.  So I filled up 2 big yard debris bags this afternoon after church and now I can see the garden.

And now I can get back to the more remote corners and keep getting pictures of the pollinated and pollinators.

And an added bonus is that the hill is more presentable for the end of the month panorama next week.

FLIES - (dragon and butter that is)

The pictures are making their annual transition from flora to fauna as the Spring and early Summer bloomers have invited in the flies. The butterflies, and a dragonfly earlier this week.

The butterfly bushes have been blooming for a couple weeks now, and the phlox and lilac have been blooming for ahwile. The lilac is over now, but we had some nice blossoms considering it was just planted last year and had to winter over one of the coldest winters in years.

The first butterfly I saw (and got pictures of) was a cabbage butterfly.  I thought it was a moth at first, but after posting pictures I was told that it's a cabbage butterfly. I love my friends who can help me learn more about what's happening in my backyard.

Here are some pictures of a cabbage butterfly.

On one of the butterfly bushes up against the back fence.

I love the colors of the butterfly bush,
but I have to be almost on top of it to see the blossoms and colors.

This has a lot going on for a "simple" picture.  The depth of field
 (the out of focus elements framing the center)
 and the parallels between the spots on the wing and the leaf make me really like this shot.
I wish I could claim credit for having planned it all, but I still appreciate it.

I was also able to get some pictures of a dragonfly as it stopped to rest on one of the statues in the garden. I really like how delicate the wings are - you can see the texturing of the statue even through the darker sections of the wings.

He's resting on the back of a dog's head (statue) - I hope he doesn't get any ideas to start riding around on any of the fur babies. I don't know how they would react.

A day or two later I saw my first tiger swallowtail of the summer. It was hanging around the phlox before moving over to the butterfly bushes. I got a picture at the butterfly bushes, but it wasn't as nice as these ones at the phlox.  The colors really pop in contrast between the fushia and the yellow.

And I also got pictures of some smaller butterflies - I have not researched the exact variety yet.  But I don't recall seeing these last year. So I'll have to do some googling to see If I can identify them.

Since there are two of them there, I'm hoping there will be more coming.

Mid July Panorama and Bloom Day

I'm cheating a little, I decided to take advantage of a Sunday afternoon for my pictures and blog post for Mid July instead of trying to get lucky on weather on Tuesday evening after work.  We've been getting a lot of afternoon thunderstorms over the last couple of weeks, but today is bright, sunny, and hot.  So I'm taking advantage of the sun, and the excuse to sit in the air conditioning and post on the blog.

First, the mid July panorama:

There's a lot of green, but not a lot of color - but it's there if you look.  We talked to our neighbor about the tall spikey growths in the center (and all over really) and couldn't decide if they're weeds or not.  I'm willing to give it some time and see if it flowers and what any flowers look like.  Here's a closer look.

Against the back fence we are just in the last two days getting blossoms on the butterfly bushes.  There are four of them back there.  And with the blossoms I was able to get some pictures of a white moth checking out the blooms.

Over in the vegetable garden, we're still getting blooms as the vegetables are continuing to come in.

Tomato buds.

Zucchini blossoms

And inside the fence at the far right (over by the holly trees) we have a flourishing patch of phlox.

And there are still just a few of the June bloomers, the rose campion and the yellow primrose.

And we have a visitor who is growing under the fence from our neighbor's yard - a day lily.

I know that the lily is potentially poisonous to the dogs, but I haven't wanted to pull it out.  I've accepted that despite my professed intent to create a totally pet friendly garden, I'm not really ready to pull out all the plants I would need to.  It would mean getting rid of the big cherry tree, the azaleas, and enough others that I had to come to terms with my goal.  I will continue to try not to add any hazardous plants, but in 4 years here we haven't had any problems with the dogs chewing on the plants (running them down - yes; eating - no) Maybe I'll need to refocus and work on rescuing the garden from the dogs. 

The Garden Bloggers Bloom Day page is at http://www.maydreamsgardens.com/search/label/garden%20bloggers%20bloom%20day

Primroses and Rose Campions

The heat of summer is coming on in Bowie. It's not in the 90's yet, but we're going to be in the mid to upper 80's all week. Amidst the heat and afternoon thunderstorms, the garden is flourishing.  Early June is the bloom time for the primroses and the rose campions.

I finally (after trying to track it down for two years) know what the silver plants with the dark red flowers are.

They are rose campions.  Due to some detective work done by a friend (thanks Karen) I know that these are rose campion.  And a few more details (they are short lived perennials [2-3 years] that reseed easily and can be planted with yellow flowers for a "hot" garden.)

Speaking of yellow flowers:

the primroses are taking over the garden in cahoots with the rose campions.

Looking down the path from near the holly trees on the left in the panorama

The two compliment each other well in color and in bloom time.

Across the back fence we have 4 butterfly bushes coming along nicely that will start adding a wildlife dimension to the blooms very soon.

Butterfly pictures should start showing up soon. We've seen one or two butterflies already, but they'll be more as soon as the butterfly bushes start to bloom.

Butterflies, Butterflies, Butterflies

The butterfly bushes are blooming.

Tiger Swallowtail

Tiger Swallowtail

Black Swallowtail

Black Swallowtail

Black Swallowtail

Tiger Swallowtails

Black Swallowtail

Zebra Swallowtail

Zebra Swallowtail

Black Swallowtail